Coronavirus and Value Pluralism

A Robust Ethical Perspective on a Pandemic

Authors

  • Ignace Haaz Globethics.net

Keywords:

Applied Ethics, Coronavirus, Fear, Emotions, Value Pluralism, Health Ethics, Pandemic

Abstract

The fear of the largely unknown consequences of being exposed to coronavirus should have brought a more dynamic interplay of beliefs and opinions for those who in the footsteps of J.S. Mill believe that the limits of power, which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual, is to prevent harm to others. It is surprising that not much debate or critical interaction has taken place on the choice of locking down most of the populace in 185 countries after the outbreak of COVID-19. The general lockdown, instead of testing and isolating the sick, can be seen as ‘a gross usurpation upon the liberty of private life.’ The axiological and ethical question confronting philosophers relates to the type and degree of authority needed during this period. As Mill claims, no general basic liberties can be respected overall without some previous and gradual evolution, that is, before other more specific liberties have met sustainable social practice. This essay reviews some of the problematic situations highlighting that no society is free or can achieve the objective of a fairly pluralistic set of values without a given social practice of these values, and shows how this logic of spreading of values unfolds in the context of the Coronavirus crisis.

References

Blendon, R. J.; Koonin, L. M.; Benson, J. M.; et al. “Public Response to Community Mitigation Measures for Pandemic Influenza.” Emerg Infect Dis 14(2008): 778–86.

Bloomfield, H. and Kory, R. The Holistic Way to Health and Happiness, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.

Canto-Sperber, Monique. La fin des libertés. Paris: Robert Laffont, 2019.

Canto-Sperber, Monique. “Libéralisme et socialisme.” Revue Projet, vol. N° 303, no. 2, (2008): 40-45.

Carrick, Paul. Theories of Health and Disease, Medical Ethics in Antiquity: Philosophical Perspectives on Abortion and Euthanasia. Lancaster: Springer, 1985/1995.

Cauchemez, Simon; Ferguson, Neil M.; Wachtel, Claude; Tegnell, Anders; et al. “Closure of Schools during an Influenza Pandemic.” Lancet Infect Dis 2009; 9: 473–81.

Chomsky, Noam. “Coronavirus Pandemic could have been Prevented.” Aljazeera, April 2020. 1 May 2020.

De Mello, Anthony. The Prayer of the Frog. Vo. 2. Ahamadabad: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 2003.

Fuchs, Thomas; “The Phenomenology of Affectivity.” The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry. Ed. Fulford, K.W.M.; Davies, Martin; et al. Oxford: University Press, Ch. 38, 2013.

Gerhardt, Volker. Humanität. Über den Geist des Menschheit, 2nd Ed. München: C. H. Beck, 2019.

Giesecke, Johan. The Invisible Pandemic. Lancet, May 05, 2020.

Haaz, Ignace. The Value of Critical Knowledge, Ethics and Education. Geneva: Globethics.net, 2019.

Haaz, Ignace. Empathy and Indifference: Philosophical Reflections on Schizophrenia, Geneva: Globethics.net, forthcoming 2020.

Jaffro, Laurent. “Viruses and Virtues.” The Conversation, April, 2020 1 May 2020.

Lessing, Johann Gotthold Ephraim. Wie die Alten den Tod Gebildet. Eine Abhandlung. Berlin: Christian Friedrich Voß, 1769, 36-41.

Lévy, Bernard-Henri. Ce virus qui rend fou. Paris: Grasset, 2020.

Kierkegaard, Søren. The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin June 17, 1844 Vigilius Haufniensis, Ed. and trans. Reidar Thomte. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980.

Klein, Ezra. “Bill Gates’s Vision for Life beyond the Coronavirus.” Vox Media, April 27, 2020.

Kopelman, Loretta and Moskop, John. “The Holistic Health Movement: A Survey and Critique.” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Vol. VI, No. 2 (May 1981): 209-235.

Kucharski, Adam J.; Russell, Timothy W.; Diamond, Charlie; et al. “Early Dynamics of Transmission and Control of COVID-19: A Mathematical Modelling Study,” Lancet Infect Dis 2020; 20: 553–58 1 May 2020.

Michel, Jean-Dominique. Covid-19. Anatomie d’une crise. Paris: Humensciences Editions.

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989.

Miller, William Ian. The Anatomy of Disgust. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997.

Moon, Suerie; Sridhar, Devi; et al. “Will Ebola Change the Game? Ten Essential Reforms before the Next Pandemic.” The Report of the Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola, Lancet 2015; 386: 2204–21.

Moon T. The Ethics of Management of Scarce Medical Resources in a Time of COVID-19. PEER Liberia Project, 2020 1 May 2020.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Ed. Robert Pippin, trans. by Adrian Del Caro. Cambridge: UP, 2006.

Nussbaum, Martha C. The Therapy of Desire. Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994.

Nussbaum, Martha C. From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010.

Petzold, Moritz Bruno; Plag, Jens; and Ströhle, Andreas. “Umgang mit psychischer Belastung bei Gesundheitsfachkräften im Rahmen der Covid-19-Pandemie.” Nervenarzt 91 (2020): 417–421 I May 2020.

Pippin, Robert. “The Conditions of Values.” In Raz, Joseph. The Practice of Values. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003, 86-105.

Pogge, Thomas. World Poverty and Human Rights. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002.

Politis, Helène. “Kierkegaard: Mort [Død].” In Le vocabulaire des philosophes, Philosophie moderne (XIXe siècle), Paris: Ellipses, 2002.

Raz, Joseph. The Practice of Values. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.

Sheila, Davis P. “Euthanasia of the Novel Coronavirus – COVID-19.” Online Journal of Health Ethics, Vol 16, No. 1/1, April 2020.

Stanguennec, André. Les horreurs du monde. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2010.

Stückelberger, Christoph; Duggal, Pavan; Wantian, Cui; Jafta, Zibuyile. “Cyber Ethical Learnings from the Pandemic.” Globethics.net videoconference organized by Cyber Law University, 19 May 2020. 21 May 2020.

WHO. Constitution of the World Health Organisation, Basic Documents, Forty-fifth edition, Supplement, October 1946/2006.

Downloads

Published

2020-06-11

How to Cite

Haaz, I. (2020). Coronavirus and Value Pluralism: A Robust Ethical Perspective on a Pandemic. Journal of Dharma, 45(2), 239–258. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/jd/article/view/2281